Recipes

Brown Butter Orange Madeleine – Oui, Oui, Oui!

While honeymooning in France, Jeff and I took a cooking class in the Old Town of Nice (Les Petits Farcis), and we learned a handful of new recipes, one of which was for lemon madeleines. YUM! Back home, I decided to tweak the recipe a bit and amp up the flavor profile by incorporating brown butter and vanilla. I replaced lemon zest for orange zest, which seems to match vanilla much better.

Need-to-be-quick TIP: The original recipe called for room temperature butter; however, that can be tricky if you didn’t plan ahead and your butter is rock solid from the fridge or freezer. Thus, brown butter is a tastier and easier way out!

Apologies for measuring in cups, but I didn’t think to weigh my ingredients beforehand. 🙂 And YES you do need the madeleline pan! (I attempted this using a cupcake tin, and they were overdone.)

Heat the butter over low/medium-low heat in a small pot. Occasionally, swirl the pot gently as the butter simmers and bubbles lightly. Once you see the butter turn a light brown color, and black specs start to form on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and cool. (I usually pour into a ramekin and put the ramekin into an ice bath to bring back to room temp. It is okay for some of the black burnt specs to get poured in.) Set aside.

Madeleines

Take melted butter and brush the mold with a pastry brush--place into refrigerator.

In an electric mixer, beat eggs with sugar, salt, vanilla, orange zest until mixture until foamy, thick, and pale.

Sift together the flour and baking powder. Fold this into the egg mixture using a large spatula. The mixture should start to stick together and get tacky.

Pour the room temperature brown butter into the mixture and combine with a spatula (only 1-2 minutes, don't over mix).

Using a small ice cream scoop, place batter into the cold madeleine mold, filling it up by two-thirds. Place in refrigerator for 60 minutes. (If you have left-over batter and plan to make another batch, keep dough in refrigerator, and when you make your next batch, you do not have to chill again.)

A few minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450 F. When the oven is heated, lightly brush the top of the madeleines with melted butter (make sure it isn't hot! room temperature is best). Bake on the top third of the oven for 5 minutes at 450 F, then lower the head to 350 and bake for another 8-9 minutes. These should come out lightly browned and can be served immediately.